Looking back, I now think that I grew up in "prime time" for most hunting, for the last 75 years. We had almost endless places to hunt, everything from rabbits, squirrels, quail, dove, duck and geese. Deer were in fair numbers but no where near today's pestilent numbers and turkeys were in other parts of the state. Plus seasons were long and limits were generous. You could hunt almost anywhere you wanted and asking and getting permission was never a issue. I use to run into rabbit hunters and would exchange good "rabbit locations" for places they had found coveys of quail. Rabbits were more a target of opportunity, than a object of desire and I was always afraid shooting too many would teach the pointer they were fair game and encourage them to run them instead of finding quail.
I hope my kids will not look back on these days and think they too grew up in prime times, like I do now. I remember my grandfathers talking about taking 25 ducks, in a morning hunt, and saying that the legal 7-10 duck limits of my youth was hardly worth going for. Perhaps every generation thinks they had the best of times hunting. Perhaps our hunting is in steep decline because too many places I hunted in my youth now have houses sitting on them.
Deer, turkeys and a slightly increased Dove limit are the only improvements in hunting from my youth. Quail are near extinction levels, ducks are down, geese are down, pheasant are almost gone in most places I hunt. Release and harvest are more what people seem to enjoy than I want to experience. I would rather have a Black Duck give me four swing passes ,just out of range and then fly off for no reason than ten dumb released Mallards, fly right to my decoys, or a dozen released pheasants get up all of ten feet in front of the dog.
Did you grow up in "prime time" or are you as older than that? Or is this your prime time?
I was in the right places at the right times
1960-1967 South Eastern Wisconsin Kettle Moraine area (lots of everything)
1967 to 1971 North Louisiana (Ruston, Louisiana Tech Univ) (lots of everything) Phil Robertson of Duck Commander fame was our Quarterback.
1971 to 1975 Great Falls Montana (hunters heaven)
1976 to 1978 Central Missouri (Warrensberg) Lots of everything
1978 to 1979 Central Turkey, lived one block from the National Skeet Shooting Champion who spoke English and we hunted the entire country LOTS of quail !!
1979 to 1984 Albuquerque New Mexico Great everything, I was in shape for the scaled quail
1984 to present. Good if you have places to hunt. Lots of deer and used to have quail and pheasants, not so much now. Lots of doves and geese and sandhill crane. At 71 my legs are starting to not like upland hunting so much.
Mike
I grew up or came up anyway in a crappy time to hunt. I started duck hunting when numbers were worse than now due to a long drought and the first year for mandated steel shot. Steel shot sucks now but it is way better than it was in 1992.
That said I love getting out and I also love reading old sporting books and magazines from the turn of the last century and reading about how it was.
That said, I also appreciate rock n roll, modern medicine and short dresses so now is OK too......
I grew up or came up anyway in a crappy time to hunt. I started duck hunting when numbers were worse than now due to a long drought and the first year for mandated steel shot. Steel shot sucks now but it is way better than it was in 1992.
That said I love getting out and I also love reading old sporting books and magazines from the turn of the last century and reading about how it was.
That said, I also appreciate rock n roll, modern medicine and short dresses so now is OK too......
I like this guy...
Started hunting rabbits & bobwhite in central MO. Didn't need a dog to get limits. Moved to different area, not a lot of quail,but a good deer population to bow hunt. Then started travelling for quail, pheasant & grouse.
Now just me,old dog & great memories.
Agree, lived in the best times.
Still “prime time” in Maine, not going to say where in Maine, still very wild and hunt covers are literally a walk out the back door. Still plenty of grouse (going to be a good year), geese, ducks and woodcock!
Skeettx
I live in Ruston and the ducks stay in AR now. I did talk to a young guy a few weeks ago and he said he shot seventy odd ducks in the Monroe area last year. Perhaps at 79 I am not as mad at them and everything hurts after a rough hunt.
bill
I am 79 and back in 50s,60s,70s Georgia had the bobwhites and i got my share! Now at my age if we had enough to hunt would still hunt but seldom shoot a bird. Bobby
I’m 62 years old and hunt really only Ruffed Grouse and Bobwhite Quail. I’ve had some great hunts for both, but in this day and age, more mediocre hunts than great, and some, just downright poor. The hunting I do is feast or famine, more of the latter. I’ve had 50+ grouse flush days and 35+ quail covey/day years, but those are the exception. Most are less. It’s more about just getting out for me now, and on those great years, I let oodles of birds just fly away. I’m not much of a killer at this stage in my life.... But, I still go hoping for more feast than famine, but it is what it is, and it’s all good.
Not many quail left here. Numbers of big ducks are not here anymore.
Dove numbers are great. Woodcock numbers last season were over the top. Turkey numbers are way higher than they were for decades. If you are a deer hunting enthusiast you are living in the golden years.
So, it's all according to what you want to hunt around here. I work hard at hunting. I scout doves and ducks hard, and am willing to drive to wherever the numbers are to hunt with good prospects.
Grumpy old men sit around and complain that "It shore ain't like it used to be". Others who work hard at their sport have great successes. Kinda reminds me of the saying that goes something like .......... "It ain't what it used to be .......... it never was."
I bemoan the loss of our beloved wild bobwhites. But, some bird hunters refuse to roll over and die. They teach their dogs to find and point woodcock, and hunt on. I am privileged to hunt with a couple of those diehards.
SRH
Edited to add:
No intention of implying that anyone in particular here is a grumpy old man.
My hunting years began in the early 70's in CT. There were plenty of grouse, woodcock, rabbits, pheasants, ducks and even bobwhites, along the shore in the eastern parts of the state No turkeys and nowhere near the number of deer like today. The grouse started disappearing when the turkeys were introduced in the mid 80's, no there are almost none and nothing being done about bringing them back. Most of the wild pheasants are gone too. Rabbits have been very low since the 90's. Still lots of wood cock if you know where to look and plenty of deer and turkeys. Still lots of ducks but all the inland hunting is crowded and I just cant bring myself to eat the ducks shot in long island sound. I have to travel to the northern parts of VT and NH or Maine to get grouse, which I do as often as I can
Damn near every opening day of dove shooting
I started hunting in the late 80s. Scratched up a few pheasants and quail then. Doves and ducks were great. The best years for me were the mid-90s to early 2000s. Plenty of pheasant and quail. CRP was well underway, Kansas opened up a lot of WIHA, and the weather cooperated. Once the drought started and CRP reductions, the birds are having a tough time. I just bought a puppy so I'm hoping things will turn around.
Ken
Two great Springers, decent bird numbers and a gun built like it was made for me. While bird numbers are not what they were in the 90's thanks to changes in the CRP program, things could be much worse. Dusky grouse help as well. Like the saying goes, "the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations I have real good days".
Started in the late 30s hunted maine for deer grouse etc. and Cape Cod for ducks and the Red swamp of Wareham Ma. for swamp hare. I never thought I would live to see the day of Turkey hunting and the demise of hunting land available to those that didn't have the means to pay to hunt or the brag of the trophy hunter that shot the 190 point white tail deer on the deer farm with the 10 foot fence. I still deer hunt on the farm for the free roaming deer and the pleasure of the hunt and being able to do it.
Two great Springers, decent bird numbers and a gun built like it was made for me. While bird numbers are not what they were in the 90's thanks to changes in the CRP program, things could be much worse. Dusky grouse help as well. Like the saying goes, "the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations I have real good days".
Glad someone is paying attention.....love Ray and that song in particular. I doubt if he would mind my borrowing his saying
shot my first grouse in patterson, ny, back in the seventies, only about fifty miles north of nyc...lots of good bird hunting in the hudson valley back then...first the coyotes showed up, then came the turkeys and now all the people...
When I had the opportunity to review Noel E. Money's (eldest son of Capt. Albert W. Money aka Blueroock, who established the American E.C. & Schultze Powder Company in Oakland, Bergan County, New Jersey, in 1890) journals, they show that in early September 1893 he shot 140 Rail near Salem, N.J. On another trip somewhere in New Jersey they supposedly shot 149 Grouse.
Started in the mid 1970's in southern Manitoba. Ducks and geese on the menu with an occasional crack at huns, sharptails and ruffies, depending on what we felt like doing. Rarely further than 2 hours from Winnipeg.
Moved around a fair bit because of work...further west into Alberta for a while and lots of time in Ontario....Toronto mostly but not exclusively. Hunting is tougher there....mostly private land in southern Ontario. Typically went back to Manitoba for a good week or two every fall. Moved back to Manitoba in 2000 and reminded myself how much better I liked hunting the great plains. By that time I had setters and began to shift my hunting focus to upland, despite buying 250 acres at Delta Marsh. Also started traveling further afield. South and North Dakota a few times....Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario. Then moved back to Ontario in 2009.
Concluded I like to travel to hunt. I like the adventure....going new places.....finding new kinds of quarry. I'll shoot a few canned hunts at clubs here in Ontario each fall. But I live for the road trip. Had an ambitious one planned for this fall....damn close to a month.....but put it off until next year because of covid. Intend to get to Newfoundland to hunt ptarmigan in the next year or two. Want to hunt chukar on the eastern slopes before I get too old and at 62, that's coming fast. Need to hunt quail in the southwest still.
Lots of fun and adventure still to be had. It's all good. A golden age/prime time??? The one I'm living in!
My good ole days are kind of mixed in with everything else. I only got to shoot the tail end of lead shot for waterfowl, and there were leans times in the lower count years, but then I had the chance to shoot a flyway concentration area at the same time, and poof things are fantastic. I’ve generally been in so so dove areas, but had the chance to get on great habitat.
I haven’t hunted Ruffed grouse for a while and the stories I hear are not the greatest, same with Bobwhite quail, it’s been a bit. But, then there’re current times which can be pretty good for game and access, but it takes a bit of scouting and some good miles. I think the glass is half full.
in a thread that attempts to give some sort of definition about the quality of life...ray wylie sings about the quality of life...and SKB quoted the punch line, so i felt like y'all should hear the set-up....
best regards,
tom